Chopra repays Keane's faith

Sunderland 1 Tottenham 0:Last month Roy Keane told Sunderland fans to be "chilled out and relaxed" when addressing their perceived lack of summer signings. He then wheeled in Michael Chopra, a £5 million buy more likely to prompt cardiac arrest than calm.

Keane has never been one for convention, his modus operandi unique as a player and seemingly so as a manager, but signing a Geordie who went to the same school as Alan Shearer and was on the books of Newcastle United from the age of 12 would normally constitute a hanging offence on Wearside.

With new ownership and management in place, however, it is merely in keeping with Sunderland's inclination to forget the past, even if the fee was 10 times what Cardiff paid for Chopra a year earlier. "I knew when I left Newcastle for Cardiff people had doubts about me playing in the Premiership," said Chopra after endearing himself to his new fans with the late winning goal on his league debut. "They said I had to drop down to the Championship because I was not good enough. I was desperate for someone to give me that chance in the Premiership and all thanks goes to the manager."

Some viewed Keane's outlay on Chopra as barmy, but on this evidence it looks nothing less than a shrewd move. Having started on the bench, Chopra came on after 72 minutes and, more than three minutes into time added on, the 23-year-old collected Ross Wallace's cross and shot low past Paul Robinson.

"Sometimes it's hard for a sub," said Keane. "At this level strikers are lucky to get one or two touches in the box. You've got to be decisive. A lot of the top strikers' goals are from six, seven yards out, not 25 yards out - the Van Nistlerooys of this world, the Linekers. Chops had one chance and we won the game 1-0. Beautiful."

This victory equalled the number of home wins Sunderland collected the last time they were in this division - in 2005-06, when they were relegated with an all-time low of 15 points - and put them top of the most lucrative league in the world for about three hours. A crowd of almost 44,000, scores of whom flew over from Ireland, added to the belief that under Keane Sunderland are stirring.

"To me it's a different club to two years ago," said Keane, at 36, the Premier League's youngest manager. "There's a different attitude to everybody, there's a different mentality. When I woke up this morning I thought, 'This is where you want to be'. You know it takes a lot to get me excited, just ask my wife. This is the place to be, let me tell you."

Celebrations, albeit not from Keane, were wild but a sense of perspective must be taken from a match that offered a desperate lack of quality for 92 minutes. Arguably, Sunderland's most creative players, Wallace and Dean Whitehead, were deployed at left and right-back respectively, and it was not until Wallace strayed to the right wing and bamboozled Paul Stalteri that they scored the only goal.

Sunderland surged from the bottom of the Championship to the title last season with a combination of slick football and uncompromising resilience but, unless some flair arrives before the transfer window closes - and Keane says "two, possibly three" new faces will come in - they will have to rely predominantly on their unquestionable team spirit, passion and fight.

Tottenham, meanwhile, harbour aspirations of breaking into the top four but stand little chance unless Martin Jolpatches up his porous defence.